Introducing Native SMS in Help Scout

The way people communicate with businesses has changed. Whether they're checking on an order, confirming an appointment, or asking a quick question, customers increasingly choose the channel that's most convenient for them in the moment—and they expect businesses to meet them there.

Today, we're excited to introduce native SMS in Help Scout. You can now send and receive text messages directly from your shared inbox, giving your team another way to support customers without leaving Help Scout.

Every new channel shouldn't mean another inbox

Adding more ways for customers to get in touch is easy. Keeping every conversation connected is the hard part.

As businesses adopt email, chat, WhatsApp, and SMS, support teams often end up managing those conversations across multiple tools. That makes it harder to understand what happened before, collaborate with teammates, and deliver a consistent customer experience.

Native SMS brings text conversations into Help Scout alongside email, chat, and WhatsApp. Imagine a customer emails your team about a delayed order, then replies by text the next morning asking if it has shipped. Instead of switching between tools or asking the customer to repeat themselves, your team sees the entire conversation in one place.

Built around Twilio

If your team already uses Twilio, getting started takes just a few minutes. Connect your account, choose the phone numbers you'd like to use, and start sending and receiving SMS directly from Help Scout.

Because SMS is built into Help Scout, your team can continue using the workflows they're already familiar with. Assign conversations, leave internal notes, collaborate with teammates, use saved replies, and manage customer communication from the same shared inbox.

The right channel for the conversation

We don't expect SMS to replace email any more than chat replaced email. Different conversations call for different tools, and SMS is designed for the quick, conversational moments that don't require a long reply or an attachment.

Think appointment reminders, shipping updates, scheduling changes, or a simple follow-up question after an earlier conversation. Email is still the better choice when you need to share detailed information or attach documents.

The goal isn't to move every conversation to SMS. It's to make every conversation feel like a continuation of the last one, no matter how your customer chooses to reach you.

Getting started

Native SMS is available today for all paid Help Scout customers.

To get started:

1. Connect your Twilio account.

2. Choose the phone numbers you'd like to use.

3. Start sending and receiving SMS from Help Scout.

For complete setup instructions, check out our documentation.

Customers will keep adopting new ways to communicate. The best support experiences will be the ones that make changing channels feel invisible.

Native SMS is another way to keep those conversations connected, so your team can focus less on where a customer reached out and more on helping them move forward.